Fate Of Dad On Trial For Tot's Death Up To Judge

Final Arguments Focus On Legal Insanity Issue

May 14, 1997|By Rachel Melcer, Tribune Staff Writer.

Squabbling over psychiatric definitions and medical testimony, attorneys in closing arguments Tuesday debated whether John Blank was sane when he allegedly slashed his 3-year-old daughter's throat last July.

They agreed to certain facts: John Blank, 32, was delusional in the week before his daughter, Cari, was slain in their Bolingbrook home. Blank thought the government, organized crime and the FBI were out to get him and his family. He had a long history of marijuana and alcohol abuse, although he hadn't used either substance on the day of her death.

Will County Assistant State's Attys. John McCabe and John Rossi didn't argue when defense lawyers Marilee Viola and Jessica Moses said Blank is mentally ill. But the prosecutors don't believe he is legally insane.

"Even though his motive for killing (Cari) may have been based in delusions . . . the defendant understood at all times that to take his daughter's life would result in his arrest and, ultimately, his incarceration," Rossi said.

Now, it's up to Will County Circuit Judge Stephen White to decide. He is expected to rule next Tuesday whether Blank is innocent by reason of insanity, guilty but mentally ill or just guilty. Under each, Blank would be locked up--in a mental institution or prison.

The issue is whether the prosecution proved beyond a reasonable doubt that Blank knew he was committing a crime when he allegedly laid Cari on her bed, covered her face with a pillow and cut her throat.

"He didn't want to look in her eyes and see her die because he knew what he was doing was wrong," McCabe contended. "Many young children have died simply because they were difficult to care for."

But defense attorneys said Blank loved Cari and killed her to save her from imagined enemies. He said after the murder that he did not want her to be brutally raped by "demons" or marked by "the beast," a reference to the Bible's Book of Revelations.

Four mental health experts testified about Blank's condition.

Syed Ali--originally brought to the case by the prosecution--and Lawrence Egel both said Blank is insane. Doreen Salina said Blank is mentally ill, but knows it was criminally wrong to kill his daughter.

Psychiatrist Melvin Hess, who examined Blank at Edward Hospital in Naperville immediately after the slaying, said Blank had been taking lithium supplements to control his mental condition, but the level of lithium in his system at the time of Cari's death was extremely low, and Blank was disheveled and delusional.

Yet in the end, Hess testified, "I couldn't tell if (Blank) understood fully what he had done."